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Opposition to Neoliberal Policy met by U.S. Militarism
by SOA Watch - www.soaw.org
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The United States' main goal in the FTAA process is to secure economic
and political hegemony over the Western Hemisphere through the FTAA. The
Georgia-based School of the Americas (SOA), recently renamed the
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a combat training
facility for Latin American soldiers has a crucial role in this
project. This school has also become known as the 'School of Assassins'.
Soldiers
at the SOA are trained to protect the interests of U.S. corporations
and maintain the economic status quo for the few rich and powerful in
the U.S. and their cohorts in Latin America.
In official SOA
publications "economic development along free market principles" is
identified as the "primary foreign policy goal[s] of the U.S." in Latin
America. The SOA strategy is "to prepare military and police forces to
respond to current threats to the achievement of those goals."
For
example, in Mexico, hours after NAFTA went into effect, indigenous
communities rose up to say "No!" The Mexican military moved in
immediately with troops, helicopters, and artillery. At least 18 of the
high-level officers involved in the civilian-targeted warfare are SOA
graduates.
In Colombia, recent reports from Human Rights Watch
and the U.S. State Department link SOA-trained soldiers to numerous
peasant massacres and the assassinations of Labor leaders and striking
workers.
Last year the Bolivian government sold the public water
system of Cochabamba to a private corporation and the water rates
immediately doubled and at times tripled. As thousands peacefully took
the streets, Bolivian President and former military dictator, SOA
graduate Hugo Banzer sent out the armed forces to attack civilians.
Gen.
Walter Cespedes Raallo, Military Governor of Cochabamba, is an SOA grad
as well. In 1998, while he was Commander of the Joint Task Force in the
Chapre coca region, the level of state sponsored violence escalated.
Fifteen farmers were killed and others were brutally tortured. Cespedes
was indicted for negligent homicide in three of these deaths, but the
case is slow to move forward because of death threats against the
prosecution and human rights workers
It is no surprise that as
state sponsored violence is used to support economic injustice against
the people in Latin America, graduates of the 'School of Assassins' are
consistently at the forefront.
To learn more about the connection between economic oppression and miltary repression and how the SOA trains the military muscle to enforce the free trade agenda and, order the new video 'Guns and Greed' ($13 from SOA Watch)
SOA Watch ~ PO Box 4566 ~ Washington DC ~ 20017 ~ www.soaw.org ~ 202.234.3440 |
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